"We located a man quite quickly. The paramedic from the Irish Coastguard helicopter came down to the lifeboat. He was winched down to try and treat the man.

"We airlifted him to casualty off the lifeboat and into the helicopter and took him to Causeway Hospital."

It was later confirmed that the man had died.

Councillor Padraig Pearse McShane said the community was "numbed" by the accident.

He called for a lifeboat to be stationed in Ballycastle.

"Our coastline is splendid and we want to make sure that visitors when they are attracted to it that they are given safe passage," he said.

"And to the best of anybody's ability charged with looking after the coastline, there are substantial warning systems in place for that to alert people to the dangers. Unfortunately you can't make it 100% safe."

He added: "The community locally here are numbed by it because in the living lifetime of anybody here they don't remember an incident like this."

"I'm calling for a lifeboat to be stationed in Ballycastle simply because of the volume of seafaring traffic that goes between Rathlin Island and Scotland to Ballycastle.

The independent councillor added: "Any coverage from lifeboats comes from Portrush or Cushendall, which both do an excellent job, but are 45 minutes away from our position by coast and that's on a pleasant day with good sea-faring weather."